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By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan

On Tuesday, President Biden addressed the press while boarding the presidential helicopter, saying, I dont think we need a wider war in the Middle East. Thats not what Im looking for. But a wider war is exactly what Biden is inflaming, with unreserved support for Israels ongoing annihilation of Gaza and the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped there. Demands for an immediate ceasefire are growing, and, despite promises of indefinite war from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the United States, as Israels principal weapons provider, could shut down the bombardment with one phone call. Absent that, the widening war that Biden hopes to avoid seems ever more possible.

Potential escalation was recently triggered by the killing of three U.S. Army Reservists stationed at a base called Tower 22 in the Jordanian desert, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. It houses approximately 350 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel. Together with another U.S. military garrison called al-Tanf, about 20 kilometers to the north, in Syria, these remote outposts are part of the U.S. military presence to counter the Islamic State.

Early on Sunday, January 28th, a drone was able to penetrate the bases defenses, attacking the soldiers in their sleeping quarters. The three soldiers killed were Sgt. William Rivers, 46; Specialist Kennedy Sanders 24; and Specialist Breonna Moffett, 23. All three were from Georgia and were African American. An estimated 40 others were injured in the blast.

Calls in the United States for swift reprisals grow, including demands that President Biden attack Iran. Pundits are quick to point out that we are in an election year, and thus President Biden cant let himself be perceived as a weak military leader.

Target Tehran, Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn said on social media, joined by fellow Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, stating the only thing the Iranian regime understands is force, and demanding the President hit them now and hit them hard.

But not everyone is demanding vengeance perhaps most powerfully, and poignantly, the parents of one of the fallen soldiers. Moffetts parents said they hope theres no escalation in violence that kills more American troops, the Associated Press reported. Francine Moffett, the mother of Breonna Moffett, told the Associated Press on Monday, I just hope and pray no other family has to go through thisIt takes your heart and your soul.

In addition to the intense assault on Gaza that followed Hamas October 7th attack on Israel, military strikes have occurred across the wider Middle East. Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged artillery fire along the Lebanon/Israel border, claiming lives on both sides. Houthi rebels in Yemen have hit cargo vessels headed to or otherwise connected to Israel, the US or the UK, in the Gulf of Aden, and hijacked at least one vessel, disrupting international shipping through the vital Suez Canal. In response, the US has launched multiple missile and artillery strikes on Yemen. Iran has hit targets in Iraq, Pakistan and Syria. Adding to the volatility, Turkey has been stepping up its attacks on US-allied Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq.

There were about 60 attacks by these Iraqi militias against U.S. troops and bases during the first two-and-a-half years of Bidens presidency, Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft said on the Democracy Now! news hour. The Iranian-American expert on Iran continued, Since October 7ththereve been more than 160 attacks just in these last 100 days. At some point, one of those attacks was going to kill Americans. And the president has essentially accepted this riskinstead of raising questions about this entire strategy as to why we are putting U.S. troops at risk in order for Israel to continue to indiscriminately bomb and kill and slaughter people in Gaza.

Spencer Ackerman, foreign policy columnist for The Nation, shares Parsis concerns. The United States, while it might say that its seeking to contain the conflict, is caught up in the logic of escalation, Ackerman said on Democracy Now! These are the accumulations of choices that Biden and his team are making to involve the U.S. more deeply in this spiraling conflict, all of which could be stopped if the United States used its immense influence over Israel.

Polls show a majority of Americans support a ceasefire in Gaza. Scores of cities have passed ceasefire resolutions, most recently Chicago. The Biden administration, though, appears resolute in backing Israels military assault on Gaza, with its continued supply of weapons, despite the International Court of Justices recent provisional finding that Israel may be committing genocide. Ceasefire and diplomacy, not arms and diplomatic cover, leading to an end to Israels occupation of Palestine, is the only solution.

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To Avoid a Wider War, Ceasefire Now in Gaza - Democracy Now!

The Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center) at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) announces the second annual Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship (Yamamoto Fellowship) with a focus on theater, dance, and performance art.

The fellowship encourages emerging arts writers of color to write about works from their own cultural and political perspectives, enriching and broadening cultural criticism as a practice and profession.

The Yamamoto Fellowship will focus on a different artistic discipline each year. Theater, dance, and performance art were selected for 2024 because these art forms are still struggling in the wake of setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Yamamoto Fellowship will award two $5,000 unrestricted awards to two emerging arts writers of color who write critically about theater, dance, and/or performance art. Each writer will receive a $5,000 award to be spent over six months. Submissions will be open from Feb. 1 to March 18 and selections will be made in June.

This fellowship gives theater, dance, and/or performance art writers the power to fight erasure of contributions and accomplishments by people of color in America, said James E. Herr, director of the Democracy Center. It also gives them the opportunity to shape how art created by their own communities is represented today and throughout American art history. By highlighting their voices, this fellowship strengthens ties within diverse communities and expands public discourse around art.

This award serves as a vote of confidence for emerging writers, a way to say keep going! despite the challenges they face, said Sharon Mizota, who funded the fellowship through a gift to honor her late aunt. I received a similar award as a young art critic and it helped me to take myself more seriously as a writer and encouraged me to take bigger risks and grow. It also convinced me that there is an audience for arts writing that recognizes and supports social justice. I hope this fellowship rewards a writers potential as much or even more so than their previous accomplishments.

Eligible applicants must:

Reside in or be a citizen of the U.S.

Be at least 18 years of age

Identify as a member of a community with ancestry in one of the original peoples of Africa, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, or Pacific Islands

Have less than two years of publication experience, which may include a blog or self-publishing

Have demonstrated a commitment to writing about theater, dance, or performance art

All eligible applications will be reviewed by a panel of professional writers and editors who cover the performing arts. More information will be available at http://janm.org/democracy.

The Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship is made possible through a gift from Sharon Mizota to honor Irene Yamamoto. This project is also supported by Critical Minded, an initiative to invest in cultural critics of color cofounded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Irene Yamamoto (1937-2020) was a lifelong lover of the arts. Born in Los Angeles, she was incarcerated with her family during World War II in Gila River, Ariz. Upon returning to Los Angeles, she attended UCLA and had a long career as a production artist for several design and advertising agencies. In her free time, she loved to draw, learn new languages, visit museums, and travel.

Original post:
Democracy Center Announces 2nd Annual Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers - The Rafu Shimpo

Dear Editor: Recently, I asked family members and friends: What are your main concerns in 2024?

The concerns centered around: climate change and the environment; support for public schools; gerrymandering and redistricting; the slaughter of children by high-powered rifles; Social Security and Medicare; increasing the number of charging stations; using money from the military budget for people programs like education, health care and child care; disinformation and lies; Citizens United decision; and much more.

One person mentioned rights: for women to make their own decisions regarding their bodies; for children to have adequate food, shelter, education, medical care, to be free from violence of any kind; to grow up in a country that respects the laws and the Constitution.

Another person mentioned the survival of our present form of government (democracy, aka republic) and Project 2025.

What is Project 2025?

The Heritage Foundation, along with about 70 other wealthy think tanks, has written a 1,000 page handbook that will be put in place on Day One should Donald Trump or another Republican be elected in November 2024.

The goal includes: firing 50,000 federal workers and filling these positions with "like-minded officials eager to fulfill the new executive's approach to governing."

The plan includes: defunding the Department of Justice; dismantling the FBI; breaking up the Department of Homeland Security; eliminating the departments of Education and Commerce; deregulating targeted industries; privatizing government functions at the expense of the middle class, not the very wealthy. This is a short list of what will be done.

What will we do in the next eight months to assure our present system of government survives?

Joyce Luedke

Weston

Send your letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.

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Letter | Eight months to save democracy | Letters to the Editor | captimes.com - The Capital Times

Vice President Kamala Harris told voters to see the profound threat former president Donald Trump poses to democracy and stressed the urgency to vote in the upcoming presidential election during her visit to Las Vegas on Saturday.

As early voting started in Nevada for the upcoming presidential primary election on Feb. 6, Harris spoke at a Get Out the Vote event at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Though she spent much of the time boasting about the legislative accomplishments of President Joe Bidens administration over the first term, she warned against putting Trump back in the White House.

The former president, she said, has not only inspired, encouraged and even empowered far right extremists, but also openly talks about his intention to weaponize the Department of Justice.

Trump was also campaigned in Las Vegas earlier in the day.

Harris said that in his comments he made clear his fight is not for the people adding that his fight is for himself.

He openly talks about his admiration for dictators and has vowed he would be a dictator on day one, she said. Understand what dictators do. Dictators jail journalists. Dictators suspend elections. Dictators take your rights.

The comment Harris was referencing was from an interview in December when Trump was asked if he was going to be a dictator and responded: No, other than day one. Were closing the border. Were drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, Im not a dictator.

The visit is Harriss second stop in Las Vegas in January.

She spoke to the Culinary Union earlier this month to congratulate them on securing a new contract and fighting for wage increases but declined any mentions of the 2024 presidential election or Trump.

Trump has since then won two presidential preference contests, the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary, and all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination.

Harris told the crowd that democracy is fragile and the upcoming election will determine the kind of country we want to live in.

She said the nation is currently witnessing a full on attack on hard-won, hard-fought freedoms and rights, citing assaults on voting protections, LGBTQ rights and gun violence prevention measures.

And she honed in on the erosion of abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court, with the votes of three Trump-appointed justices, overruled the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.

(Trump) openly says that he is proud he overturned Roe v. Wade, she said. Proud of taking the freedom of choice from millions of women.

In paraphrasing a quote by the poet Maya Angelou, Harris told the audience, When someone tells you who they are

Many in the audience responded in unison: Believe them the first time.

Harris said if they are able to win a majority in the House and retain the White House and Senate, Biden would sign a bill that reinstates the protections of Roe v. Wade.

Even with Democratic majorities in Congress, Democrats in the Senate would need a 60-vote majority to overcome a Republican filibuster, or enough Democrats willing to vote to change the procedural rules to bypass a filibuster in order to pass potential legislation enshrining abortion protections.

Ahead of Harris speaking, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto admonished far right extremists as well, while also touting legislative victories under the Biden administration, including the American Rescue Plan Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly referred to as the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Titus said as the election nears Democrats need to do a better job at drawing distinctions and talk about the contrasts, talk about the accomplishments, and talk about the other side.

(Republicans) will roll back the progress we have made, Titus said. Theyve said it. They dont even pretend they wont. My advice to you is dont let them sell that same old shit and call it sugar.

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Harris in Las Vegas warns Trump poses 'profound threat' to democracy, individual rights - Nevada Current

By Nancy Marr

An Equal Rights Amendment for the United States was first drafted in 1923 by two leaders of the womens suffrage movement, Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, who believed that the ERA was the next logical step following the campaign to win access to the ballot.

While the text of the amendment has changed over the years, its focus has remained the same. Article V of the U.S. Constitution requires that a proposed amendment be passed by the Senate and the House in a two-thirds majority in two consecutive legislative sessions in order to be sent to the states for ratification by their legislatures or conventions.

Theversion approved by Congress in 1972 and sent to the states with a deadline of 1979 reads: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.Although the deadline was extended to 1982, only 37 of the required 38 states ratified the amendment.

Opposition to it came from conservative Phyllis Schlafly, saying it would require women to serve in the military or lose protections for alimony or child custody cases. The result? Five states voted to revoke their ratifications, but these reversals were not counted as part of the result, and the count of ratifications remained at 37. The amendment was not passed.

In the absence of a national equal rights law, the constitutions of twenty-five states now do provide guarantees of equal rights on the basis of sex. The New York State Legislature, in 2022 and 2023, passed an ERA bill that has looked further. Currently, our state constitution only protects against racial and religious discrimination.

The proposed bill would protect all those who have been discriminated against based on ethnicity, national origin, disability, age, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, and a persons reproductive autonomy or access to reproductive care. The new ERA bill explicitly includes language to clarify that discrimination based on a persons pregnancy or pregnancy outcomes would be sex discrimination, protecting women from punishment. It will also ensure comprehensive and inclusive equal protection that will guard against attacks on our rights from the federal government or federal judges, including threats to the legal equality of LGBTQ1+ people.

Do we need protection if the Fourteenth Amendment already guarantees equal protection of the laws? The Fourteenth Amendment, passed in 1868, added the word male to the Constitution but failed to include women in the right to vote. The proposed New York State ERA is not a womens equality amendment but seeks to protect women as a class and men as a class against discrimination under the law for any reason.

The Brennan Center has commented that the amendment process is an ineffective way to correct shortcomings in our United States Constitution. Given the difficulties and delays that have been faced by those who have fought for amendments, is our Constitution unamendable?

Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is the leading constitutional scholar serving in Congress today. Reflecting on the progressive activism that built the modern Constitution, Raskin urges reform-minded Americans to shed their fear of advancing reform through Article V. Its a betrayal of our history if we dont talk about amending the Constitution in order to create a more perfect union, he says. We need to be planting flags in the unfolding history of democracy. Thats what the constitutional amendment process is all about.

Voting to amend the New York State Constitution with the New York State ERA will provide protection for New Yorkers who have faced discrimination through the years. Make a plan to turn your 2024 ballot over and vote yes on the proposed amendment.

Nancy Marr is Vice-President of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Visit http://www.lwv-suffolkcounty.org or call 631-862-6860.

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Making Democracy Work: Passing the NYS Equal Rights Amendment will protect all New Yorkers - TBR News Media